Sprinkles and Ice Cream

My husband and I don't really celebrate Valentine's Day but we do celebrate pink frosting and pink sprinkles, so when Shawn brought home these pretty treats from Watercourse Bakery on Sunday, I didn't protest.

Apologies for the lighting. Just pretend it's "romantic."

Far more important than Valentine's Day this month was the reopening of Sweet Action, which was closed for the month of January. We stopped by last weekend and enjoyed some vegan cinnamon roll ice cream, which features swirls of Watercourse's cinnamon roll filling as well as pieces of cinnamon roll. These fools don't mess around.

A snow day, some pancakes

This post is all kinds of late considering the snow day in question was over a week ago, but I've been hella busy, so just humor me. Last week Colorado was hit with a pretty ridiculous snow storm and, since no snow day is complete without a hearty, lazy brunch, I made banana pancakes, the perfect start to a day of reading comic books, drinking warm beverages, and watching the never-ending snow accumulate outside. This sudden winter storm in October pissed a lot of people off, but the Florida kid in me still gets a little giddy at the sight of snow. The weather in Colorado is notorious for constantly changing, and I rather like it. Last week we received 15 inches of snow, and today, as I type this, it's in the 70's and gorgeous outside.

Denver is Delicious

And to honor this fact, I've made a list of my five favorite dishes from restaurants in this fair city. Denver really is full of delicious vegan food, so narrowing it down to five proved to be a rather difficult task. Here they are in no particular order:

1. Biscuits and gravy topped with tofu scramble, Watercourse
This is hands down the best biscuits and gravy I've ever had the pleasure of shoving into my gob. The biscuits are savory and fluffy and the gravy is thick and seasoned just right. You can order the b&g with or without the tofu scramble on top, but not getting it would just be...stupid.
There are delicious biscuits hiding under there somewhere, I promise.

2. Salt and pepper golden tofu, L'Asie Fusion Bistro
Crispy, spicy salt and pepper tofu served on a bed of sauteed peppers and onions with a ginger sesame dipping sauce. A delicious appetizer or a delightful late night snack (well, L'Asie closes at 10 so it's more like pre-late night, but the point is my husband and I sometimes just get an order of this to go as a snack because it is so. damn. good.)
Little zesty nuggets of heaven

3. The Dona Lee, Watercourse
Crispy seitan, avocado, tomatoes, and vegan ranch dressing wrapped in a warm pita. Yeah buddy, just ponder that for a little while. And then, you know, wipe the drool off your chin.

4. Seitan buffalo wings, City, O' City
You can also find these wings at Watercourse, which is City O's sister restaurant, but I associate them more with City O' since it's a bar and this is bar food. I've had various vegan incarnations of buffalo wings from a couple of different restaurants around the country, and these are by far the best. Likewise, the creamy, herbed ranch dressing they are served with (the same dressing found in the aforementioned Dona Lee) is the best I've had anywhere. City O' City also has teriyaki wings which are coated in a faintly sweet, gingery teriyaki sauce. While not quite as good as the buffalo wings, the teriyaki wings definitely stand on their own and are a milder alternative. Like their spicy counterpart, the teriyaki wings are served with ranch dressing, which is kind of ridiculous and doesn't really work as a flavor profile, but the ranch is so good I usually dip the wings in it anyway. And then I feel I so very American.
Spicy seitan buffalo wings and cool, creamy ranch dressing: 2gether 4ever

5. BBQ Chicken Pizza, The Rebellion
I've gushed about this delicious pizza twice already on this blog, so I'll spare you more of the same. And the truth is that virtually any pizza from Rebellion would be worthy of a slot on this list because the combination of that fluffy, organic crust and perfectly-melted FYH can do no wrong. (But seriously, the bbq chicken is the best. Go get some right now.)

Dinner Partay

I wish I had photographic documentation of the dinner party I threw last night, but sadly I have yet to replace my broken camera. Shawn and I had a few friends over and ate on the rooftop of our six-story building, which boasts a lovely view of the mountains, downtown Denver, and our awesome neighborhood (Capitol Hill, represent!)

The menu:
Pesto and artichoke stuffed portobellos
Crusty garlic bread with sun-dried tomato pate
Caesar salad (courtesy of my pal and dinner guest, Abbie)
Eggplant rollatini
Tiramisu cupcakes

Candles were lit, wine was imbibed, and bellies were filled. Since I can't show you any pictures from the night, I can at least show you the adorable apron that my husband bought me for the occasion:

I may have been slaving for hours in the kitchen, but at least I looked damn cute while doing it.

And now I'm off to enjoy a lazy Saturday, reading and watching episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer with my dude. I hope my lovely readers (all four of you, and yes that includes you, Mom) are enjoying the remainder of summer and eating delicious, cruelty-free food with good company.

Raw Tacos and Pretty Days

The weather here in Denver has been delightfully warm - perhaps even hot by some standards, but I'm from Florida so I laugh in the face of low 80s with no humidity. The result of this weather, in addition to running more often and sleeping with the windows open, is that I've been craving cool, refreshing meals. Enter raw foods. I recently made raw tacos using red cabbage leaves as the shells and filled them with raw corn salsa (Yellow Rose Recipes) and an almond cheeze that I based on a recipe from Vegan Fusion. Topped with lettuce and cilantro, it was a fresh, satisfying meal. Some avocado would have also made a lovely addition.

Another warm-weather perk: hiking with my husband and our friends.
Shawn, Norton, and Lacy on Mount Sanitas

In conclusion, I'm looking forward to a beautiful summer (my first spent living outside of Florida) filled with delicious eats and outdoor activities.

Reason #346 Why Denver is Awesome

Vegan BBQ chicken pizza from The Rebellion. The clincher: it's cheap, too. Word to your mother.

Did you know that it snows in Colorado?

Blizzard beginnings, from my bedroom window

Just when I thought spring had finally sprung here in Denver, we were hit by a blizzard. Being a native Floridian, blizzards have always seemed something of a myth to me, simply a hyperbolic way to describe, you know, a bunch of snow. Turns out they really exist, and once my husband made it back from work after being sent home early and braving the interstate, we had a cozy day lazing about with our dog and watching the snow pile up outside.

Two days later and just in time for the weekend, the roads were clear and the sun was out, so we went with some friends to have amazing vegan pho at Pho Duy.

Between the sun and nice, hot bowls of pho, we were sufficiently thawed to take a spur-of-the-moment detour for some ice cream at Sweet Action, a new ice cream parlor on Broadway. (I'm still incredulous of the fact that I now live somewhere where I don't have to drive an hour to get decent vegan food at a restaurant, much less be able to impulsively stop for ice cream at an ice cream shop.) All of their ice cream is homemade and they always have a couple of vegan flavors, as well as honkin' vegan ice cream sandwiches in their freezer.
Vegan ice cream sammich and a cup of coffee, with coconut lemongrass ice cream hiding out in the background

I have always generally tried to cook healthful meals based around whole foods, but I've been focusing on this even more lately in an effort to combat all of the less-than-wholesome foods we've been eating out. (Pizza, milkshakes, and seitan buffalo wings, anyone?) On the baking front, I'm toying with a few recipes but none are quite ready to be revealed to the masses*.

*My three readers

I'll leave you with some recent testers from Isa and Terry's upcoming Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar.
Naked figs, chopped and ready to be made into...

Soft Whole Wheat Fig Bars (these put any store-bought fig bar to shame)

Big Fat Rice Krispy Squares - just like your mom used to make for your class in elementary school. Except, you know, without the ground up cow bones.

Tester Cookies and Snowy Days

Some recent goodies from Isa and Terry's cookie test kitchen:


Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies


Spiced Sweet Potato Blondies


Swedish Chocolate Balls (uh huh huh)


Call Me Blondies

My non-baked food of late hasn't been much to blog about. The recent cold weather here in Denver has inspired lots of soup and copious cups of tea. Split pea soup, while delicious, is not particularly inventive or photogenic.

Soup weather

Dobby has the right idea:

Back again (for now)

So I'm new to this whole blogging thing but I'm fairly certain that one is not supposed to allow two months to lapse between posts. Rare is the occasion that real life interferes with my time usually allotted for tinkering about on the interwebs, but over the course of the last month, I've gotten married and moved from Florida to Colorado. Now that we are essentially settled in, I hope to get back to this here vegan food web log on a semi-regular basis. To keep you occupied for the time being, feast your eyes upon some vegan delectables from WaterCourse here in Denver:


Cranberry hoho


Sweet potato cinnamon roll

(WaterCourse, incidentally, is within walking distance to our new apartment and serves the best biscuits and gravy I have ever had.)